Invasive fungal infection (IFI) is a disease usually occurred in the patients with compromised immune condition, such as acute leukemia, allogeneic stem cell transplantation or long term immune suppression treatment with the incidence increasing over last decades. Given the introduction of numerous anti-fungal agents and great advance has been made in recent years, IFI is still a dangerous disease with high mortality.

Early diagnosis of IFI is still a problem challenging the physicians. Serum tests of β-D-Glucan are introduced to the diagnosis of IFI, which have the advantage of easy application. However, the value of this test in the monitoring of antifungal treatment remains unclear.

The investigators perform this study to evaluate the correlation of the serum test results of β-D-Glucan test with the treatment response during the anti-fungal treatment, and hope to see that the results of serial serum tests are good predictive markers for treatment response.

This is a single center, open-label study. The duration of the study will be 2 years. The number of targeted subjects will be 50 (in 2 years). We estimate that on average, the treatment duration is 4-8 weeks. Serum Glucan levels will be measured 2 times per week until the recovery of the infection or treatment end.

Eligibility

Ages Eligible for Study:

18 Years and older

Genders Eligible for Study:

Both

Accepts Healthy Volunteers:

No

Sampling Method:

Probability Sample

Study Population

The patients with compromised immune condition, such as acute leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, allogeneic stem cell transplantation or long term immune suppression treatment.

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

Patients with proven or probable IFI and immunocompromised because of hematopoietic-cell transplantation (HSCT) or chemotherapy, and have positive results for serum Glucan tests will be included in the study.

Patients must satisfy all the following criteria before entering the study :

Episode of proven or probable IFI, diagnosed according to the EORTC/MSG definitions;

Immunocompromised because of HSCT or chemotherapy for malignant hematopathy;

≥ 2 consecutive positive serum glucan level, using a threshold for positivity of ≥ 60 ng/L, at the start of antifungal therapy.

Exclusion Criteria:

If the fungal infection of the patient is excluded or confirmed to be a specific pathogen other than fungi before the enrollment/during the study period, he or she will be excluded/withdrew from the study.

Contacts and Locations

Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study.
To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the Contacts provided below.
For general information, see Learn About Clinical Studies.

Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01490138